Cave Lion

Cave Lion

(Felis spelaea), an extinct predatory mammal of the family Felidae. The cave lion lived in Europe and northern Asia during the second half of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. It was the same size as the modern lion or tiger, but its skeletal structure, particularly the skull, had features of both types of cats. Consequently, the cave lion is sometimes called the tiger-lion. That name is perhaps more accurate because the animal did not live in caves but on plains and piedmonts.

8 million years ago to 10,000 years ago) could be divided into two groups: the American Lion which lived in North America, and the Cave Lion which lived in northern Europe, Russia, Alaska and the Yukon.

Researchers suggest it was this deterioration in food supply that led to the extinction of the cave bear, one of a group of 'megafauna', including woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, giant deer and cave lion, to disappear during the last Ice Age.

Washington, May 9 ( ANI ): A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that dietary flexibility may have been an important factor giving wolves and bears an edge over saber-toothed cats and cave lions.

A huge reduction in grasslands and the spread of forests may have been the primary cause of decline in the numbers of mammoths, and also woolly rhinos and cave lions, according to Durham University scientists.

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